Bulletproof Web Design Contracts

[ArticleBot]

This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "Bulletproof Web Design Contracts"

thanks! this answered some of the questions that plagued me.

[Sojan80]

Yes! You managed to just about answer every single question I had concerning this. YOur advice was clear, succinct, to the point, and left me feeling like I had a good understanding of where to start and what to ask of the legal professional who be advising me.

Thanks for such a stunning article!

[shadowbox]

Got to be one of the best articles I've seen for ages on Site Point.

[01ski]

Thanks for such a stunnig article indeed.

It's given me a nice check list to check my contract template against.

Three cheers

[Lira]

Great article. I've had some of these things happen to me as well, and I must say they're rather annoying.

[Egor]

An insightful and informative read, John. You da man.

[SRTech]

Very good points!

Does any one know where to find a contract to start with (besides in the web business kit)?

This is THE best, most comprehensive article I've read on SitePoint. . .and all SitePoint articles are excellent. I doubt you want this to turn into a litany of anecdotes, but here's a situation you didn't address and I could never have predicted. It's all RELATIVE (literally)!! I'm dealing with a client now whose brother keeps popping in and out of the picture and has turned the whole deal into a comedy of errors. When I lined up a professional to do the requested video, the client's brother suddently had VAST experience in video and the video was DONE the day before our appointment to do it. We created the Flash intro and LO and BEHOLD! the brother did one better. . . My comment "Maybe your brother should create your site" was met with "He's too unreliable." Huh? He's reliable enough to show up every time we threaten his expertise! Fortunately, the client still pays us for our work. . . Do you think I should include the clause: "No relative is to perform any work described herein"?

[dreamscape]

Originally Posted by SRTech

Does any one know where to find a contract to start with (besides in the web business kit)?

Nolo. You can buy individual forms and they also have a Web & Software Development Kit full of good advise and forms.

[shadowbox]

Originally Posted by SRTech

Very good points!

Does any one know where to find a contract to start with (besides in the web business kit)?

Yes, each week I post a link to a thread which contains links to more threads (which contain links to more threads...) all containing example contracts. Search and you will find, my friend....

[Sagewing]

good read

[Pavel_Nedved]

Fantastic article!

I have something going on just now with copyright transfer that I wasn't certain about, but now I know where I stand (I can give him the full rights, and I'll be just fine). Very good insight, especially about the copyright transfer stuff. I'll know never to transfer the rights of my CMS. Great, great article. I feel so at ease... thanks.

Pavel

[charmedlover]

This is a great article. It certainly combines all of the various aspects into one nice, detailed article. Very well done. Quite handy.

Excellent article - very useful,thanks!

Thanks! This was an EXTREMELY timely article. Just today, I was offered a website job, and was unsure of the formalities and contracts I would need. Then, BOOM! There's a new item in SitePoint's RSS feed: "Bulletproof Web Design Contracts." Yes!

[csi95]

Dealing With Client Delays - This is something I deal with from time to time.

Does anyone have contract language they can post to give me and idea of how you handle it?

[optimus_prime]

Good article John. I have a couple of items that I have included in my contracts after a few years of experience that I thought I should share:

1) If the client breaches the contract or terminates the agreement in a situation where we help up our end of the deal, the client is responsible for paying for all of the money owed so far plus 50% of what was left.

This will help you recover the opportunity cost of taking on a project and not getting to complete it when the client becomes flakey.

2) My contracts say very clearly (in bold red letters) that unless a particular feature or service is explicitely mentioned in the contract, it should be assumed that it was not part of the agreement.

This will prevent clients from "assuming" that you were going to do maintenance or set up their email, or register their domain name, etc...

[Luke Morton]

What a great read, and useful information

[ricktu]

Great article John, I've recently started my own web development business and everything you said fitted with what I've gone through so far. Pity you didn't publish it several months ago and it may have saved me making some bonehead decisions ;)

Richard.

[woodsikov]

I notice that no mention was made of penalties for late completion. When clients have reviewed my standard terms in the past, their legal advisor often mentions including penalties for late completion. I then have to point out that penalties are illegal in my country (UK) although a rate of pre-estimated damages for non-completion could be legally included.

There are a lot of parallels between the Construction Industry and web development in that we are both "building" a product, and the contracts used on construction projects contain clauses that would be equally applicable to web development.

A contract is basically there to say who will do what, by when and for how much - everything else is to cover what will happen when things go wrong (or things don't happen when they're supposed to).

[mcahill]

I've always found that penalties for late completion are utterly dropped when I state that if we're going to consider a penalty for late completion, the same amount should be considered for early completion. After all, it's only fair...

But be forewarned, if you head down that path, you need to know your schedule is realistic, you need to build time escalators into every single change, and all customer action needs firm deadlines as well so they don't hold you back. If you can do that, then you can call the "what about a penalty if you miss the deadline" gambit and possibly make some extra coin on the job.

But normally the customer will just drop the whole issue...

Another mechanism (and one of the most customer friendly) is to establish "Progress Payments". These are made by the customer at pre-determined intervals (such as monthly)on a "best faith" basis. Although some customers may balk at paying you regardless of the status of the project, most will accept the idea of progress payments directed into an escrow fund. Specify this in your contract, and that in the event of a breach (or other event), the disposition of funds from this account is under the control of the arbitrator. This can eliminate the need for penalities, and provides a pool of funds for any "damages" you may have incurred as a result of the contract (such as subcontractors). On that note, I would typically delineate any specific project-related costs I would incur in the contract.

[kabatak]

I have one question at the back of my mind. Does contracts also apply for a simple "freelancer"? You know what I mean: like someone who is not a registered business entity, someone who can do web design as a hobby then got hired by someone to make a website. Will the freelancer's contract be valid?

Hello, great article, thank you kindly!

Regarding kabtak's question, if i may - a contract between any two (or more) parties is valid under the law in which the parties are governed, it does not matter if the parties are "businesses" or "individuals".

In Canada btw, it is entirely legal for a person to run a business using his/her own name, and without having "registered" themselves as business. Regardless though, a contract is still binding, and it will be used to determine the rightful outcome even if it was only a verbal contract (which can be real nightmare if things happen to go badly)

I would encourage all to get a contract made up as the article suggests) They are for the good times as well as the bad! </trev>